THE PLANNING PROCESS

Developed by

Dr. Frederick L. Dembowski

Endowed Professor of Educational
Leadership

Southeastern Louisiana University

"Failing to plan is planning to fail!"

Planning in all its forms is an essential process for any
organization, large or small. It can take many forms but
fundamentally an organization must have a strategic intent or
plan for where the organization intends to be in the future. An
organization must have an operational plan that clearly says how
it will achieve its strategic intents.

THE THREE
FUNCTIONS OF PLANNING (Dembowski & Eckstrom, 1999)

(See Figure 1
- Hierarchy of Planning Diagram at the end of this document.)

I.
Maintenance (short term) of the Operations of the Organization,

Including:

a.
Budgeting

b.
Review of Policies, Rules & Regs.

c.
Review of Operating Procedures

d.
Program Review & Planning

II.
Improvement (longer term) of Operations

a.
Problem Solving & Systems Analysis

b.
Continuous Improvement (TQM)

c.
Reform

III.
Organizational Development (long term)

a.
Strategic Planning

b.
Restructuring & Re-Engineering

Maintenance &
Improvement are short-term planning activities that should be
conducted regularly (annually).

Organizational Development is a long term planning activity that
should be conducted periodically (i.e. every five years.)

CONSIDERATIONS IN USING PLANNING

1. Realize
that planning is not a single concept, procedure, or tool.

2. It
emphasizes different aspects of the process.

3. Every
process application is a hybrid adapted to the
unique situation.

4. the most
effective planners include strategic planning in their
repertoire.

5. The role
of the planner is important.

6. Planning
processes for specific situations must be developed.

STEPS IN THE
STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS:

(See Figure
2. THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS at the end of this document)

1.
Initiating and agreeing on a strategic planning process

2.
Clarifying Vision, Mission and Values

3.
Identifying organizational mandates

4.
Assessing the external environment strengths and weaknesses (PEST)

5.
Assessing the internal environment strengths and weaknesses (SWOT)

6.
Identifying the strategic issues facing an organization

7.
Formulating strategies to manage the issues

8.
Establishing an effective vision for the future

INITIATING
AND AGREEING ON A STRATEGIC PLAN

1. Need
agreement on four issues:

a. worth of planning effort

b.
who should be informed & involved (leaks)

c. steps to be followed (mechanisms of process)

d. form & timing of reports

2.
Benefits of Agreement Process:

a. introduces concepts of planning to key actors

b. develops understanding of practical realities of planning

c. forces thinking through of important implications
(resources needed)

(Note: One of
the course assignments is to develop/analyze a Mission statement
– see below. You do not have to develop a Vision or a Value
statement.)

Vision –

A vision helps unite people towards a purpose. Creating and
living a vision is the role of leaders in organizations. They
have to espouse it and help others to believe it.

Visions are aesthetic and
moral, they come from within as well as outside.

A successful vision
accomplishes six goals:

gives a
sense of the future

guides
decision making and strategy

creates a
shared purpose

provides
guidelines that determine behavior

inspires
emotion

connects to
values

Mission
-

A mission statement is a
unifying statement of what an organization is in business to do.
It is a key reference point in the planning and implementation
of change.

A mission statement is a
description of the organization's key purposes.

Values -

Values are the beliefs of
an organization, the expression of what it stands for and how it
will conduct itself. Values are the core of an organization's
being. They underpin policies, objectives, procedures and
strategies because they provide an anchor and a reference point
for all things that happen.

An
organization's vision conveys a compelling,
conceptual image of the desired future for the unit. It provides
inspiration and challenge to all members of the unit towards an
ideal of what the unit can become. It should be purposefully
articulated to bridge the present and future and to serve as a
critical impetus for change. Thus it should be brief enough to
be memorable and complete enough to direct effort.

Characteristics of a "Good" Vision:

Future-oriented, deriving from reasonable assumptions about the
future

Scenario
building

·take stock of the current scenario by actively undertaking a SWOT
analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)

·create a time frame

·recognize impacts that will definitely occur during this timeframe

·recognize variables that could make or break the organization

·develop outcomes or pictures of the future

Testing
future scenarios

Now that the scenarios have
been created, use the following criteria to rank each scenario
to see if it will stand within the plans of the organization.

·does it fit in with our philosophy, values?

·is it feasible, given our past and present?

·is that where we want to be?

·does this change our mission?

THE MISSION STATEMENT

DOES IT
PROVIDE A SENSE OF PURPOSE?

DOES IT
ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS?

1. Does it
clarify the purpose or desired outcomes (What Org. should look
like and how it should or could behave?)

2. Is there
agreement on the Mission?

3. Is it
used to focus thinking?

4. Is it
used to clarify thinking?

5. Is it
used to control thinking?

6. Is it
used to disclose philosophies and values?

7. Has it
been made "operational"?

STEPS IN
DEVELOPING AND ASSESSING A MISSION STATEMENT:

1.
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

a.
Are stakeholders identified?

b.
Are the criteria used by stakeholders to
assess org. performance specified?

c.
How well does the organization perform using those criteria?

2. COMPONENTS
OF A MISSION STATEMENT

a.
Who are we?

b.
Why do we exist?

c.
How do we respond to this need?

d.
How do we respond to stakeholders?

e.
What are our philosophy and key values?

(Do we do what is right or what is politically or economically expedient?)

f.
What makes us distinctive or unique?

PROCESS GUIDELINES FOR MISSION DEVELOPMENT PHASE

1. Someone
should be in charge

2.
Undertake a formal stakeholder analysis using worksheets

3. Develop
mission statement individually first then discuss
jointly

4. Leader
draft mission statement

5. Record
salient points of discussions

6. Revise
mission statement as needed throughout the
planning process

7. Mission
statement should be well publicized and be a
physical presence

Adoption of
mission statement is an important decision point in planning
process!

ASSIGNMENT 3: MISSION STATEMENT DEVELOPMENT/ANALYSIS

Using the
rubric on your CD, either develop a Mission Statement for your
organization, or analyze the Mission Statement for your
organization. Use the rubric as an outline for your mission
statement. Write a report of this project by:

1.State the
Mission Statement,

2.Evaluate the
Mission Statement using the rubric, and

3.Include a
summary regarding the mission statement, including your self
reflection regarding what you learned about mission statements,
and what did you learn about yourself.

4.Add the
Mission statement report as an artifact in your PSS-PORT
Portfolio.

A VALUES STATEMENT

Values are the beliefs of an
organization, the expression of what it stands for and how it
will conduct itself. Values are the core of an organization's
being. They underpin policies, objectives, procedures and
strategies because they provide an anchor and a reference point
for all things that happen.

Developing
a Values Statement
1. Values represent the core priorities in the organization’s
culture, including what drives members’ priorities and how they
truly act in the organization, etc. Values are increasingly
important in strategic planning. They often drive the intent and
direction for “organic” planners.
2. Developing a values statement can be quick culture-specific,
i.e., participants may use methods ranging from highly
analytical and rational to highly creative and divergent, e.g.,
focused discussions, divergent experiences around daydreams,
sharing stories, etc. Therefore, visit with the participants how
they might like to arrive at description of their organizational
values.
3. Establish four to six core values from which the organization
would like to operate. Consider values of customers,
shareholders, employees and the community.
4. Notice any differences between the organization’s preferred
values and its true values (the values actually reflected by
members’ behaviors in the organization). Record each preferred
value on a flash card, then have each member “rank” the values
with 1, 2, or 3 in terms of the priority needed by the
organization with 3 indicating the value is very important to
the organization and 1 is least important. Then go through the
cards again to rank how people think the values are actually
being enacted in the organization with 3 indicating the values
are fully enacted and 1 indicating the value is hardly reflected
at all. Then address discrepancies where a value is highly
preferred (ranked with a 3), but hardly enacted (ranked with a
1).
5. Incorporate into the strategic plan, actions to align actual
behavior with preferred behaviors.